Musical Themes in The Elder Scrolls
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- Опубліковано 4 сер 2024
- A key to all of the recurring musical themes in the three main Elder Scrolls Games: Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. If I missed any, let me know in the comments!
Here is a PDF guide with these themes notated as sheet music so you can follow along!: drive.google.com/file/d/145RP...
0:00 - The Elder Scrolls Main Theme
3:11 - "Reign of the Septims" Theme
6:13 - "Silt Sunrise" Theme
11:05 - "Minstrel's Lament" Theme
14:58 - "Tamriel Chord" Motif
17:11 - Thank for watching! :)
Website: www.jackyagerlinemusic.weebly.com
Such an Underrated video! Congrats on finding out the recurring themes in the elder scrolls games.
The "Reign of the Septims" theme actually has a few appearances in Oblivion, but they're rather subtle. It also has 2 parts to it. One is the slow building part after the Elder Scrolls theme in the opening track of Oblivion, the "B" version is heard at the end of "Reign of the Septims" after the woodwind transition.
First is at the end of "Harvest Dawn", where the more rhythmic main melody gives way to the slow building of "Reign of the Septims" in a new variation.
At 1:55 of "King and Country" there's a variation of the "B" section of the theme that is intertwined with the main melody of that piece, as well as another more obvious variation at 2:27.
There's yet another version of the "B" portion of the theme in "Watchman's Ease" at 0:23 that transforms into another melody. Another similar instance like this happens at 1:16 in "Minstrel's Lament". Also, as discussed by Erik Hoeting Music, the ending chords of "Minstrel's Lament" are also the chords to the "Reign of the Septims" theme.
Lastly, in "Auriel's Ascension" there's a straightforward reprise of "Reign of the Septims" at 1:41. All of this to me disproves the theory that it's more the Skyrim theme since it appears more in Skyrim, but a theme linked to the Septim family, as it gets passed to the Dragonborn, who is the closest thing to a Septim at that point in Skyrim.
it is the dragonborn motif. and the septims are dragonborns
@@Malte12345 That would be the case if there wasn't a whole dedicated theme to the Dragonborn in Skyrim. That theme also plays throughout the game to represent the Dragonborn's journey, even in subtle ways such as "From Past To Present" where the melody is basically a subtle alteration of the Dragonborn theme to fit in an ambient context.
Having two themes for the Dragonborn would be redundant at that point, which is why I believe it was used as a Septim legacy theme to connect the Dragonborn to them. The empire is also fractured in Skyrim so you could also see its use in the score as a reflection of that.
@@Superultramegaa19 i have noticed that melody alot in skyrim but only in reign of the septims and the oblivion intro in that game but dont you think the other versions of that melody in oblivion are a little far fetched? they seem more easy to hear in skyrim anyway
@@Malte12345 They are more straightforward in Skyrim because they just use the more simple melody from Reign of the Septims. But they never use the more stretching melody that closes the track, which I do believe Oblivion does. It seems far fetched because that melody is less obvious as it's a series of rising intervals for the most part.
However, like I said there are fairly straightforward references to the main melody from Reign of the Septims in the end of Harvest Dawn and in Auriel's Ascension. Plus if you notice in Reign of the Septims itself, there's a menacing, more subtle use of the theme right after it's introduced. I personally think that the melody is more varied in Oblivion due to the differences of the music styles between it and Skyrim's music. Oblivion's music is more subtle and flowing and so when a theme is used, it flows in and out of the main melody of the piece. Whereas Skyrim generally emphasizes when an important theme is used. It draws attention to it.
This can even be seen in the way they use the Silt Sunrise theme. Oblivion's is a more free flowing, expansion on the motif that goes in many directions while still utilizing the original Morrowind melody as a base. Whereas the Skyrim theme is a remaster of the Morrowind version with a few new added parts. There are subtle moments in Skyrim no doubt, but it doesn't have the free flow quality of Oblivion's exploration music exactly.
@@Superultramegaa19 have you by any chance played dark souls? i love those games and they are kinda like the elder scrolls but one thing that always bugged is that they dont have a connected main theme like the elder scrolls games do, or atleast not what i can hear. but you seem to be able to hear just about anything so if you have played them could you tell me if there is any recurring melody or something throughout all of those games that i cant hear? i know you probably have no idea what i am talking about but i have not found anyone like erik hoeting that does transcriptions and such videos of those games music and i am desperate to find out if there are any musical conncetions in that series besides the obvious one at the end of dark souls 3.
Thank you algorithm! I was actually really curious about this topic after playing earlier entries
Glad you enjoyed the video! :)
This is so great! Thank you for compiling and organizing, was curious about this a few months back. Thanks for sharing your work, and the transcriptions in the description!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Silt Sunrise is basically TES' version of A Walk In the Woods, and I hope that means we'll continue to get variants in TES6 and beyond just like Halo's done for Walk.
I hope so too!